The case of Riam Dean, an attractive 22 year old who claims that top fashion store Abercrombie & Fitch relegated her to the stock room due to her prosthetic arm, has received much news coverage. The Guardian reports that:
Dean claims that when she told A&F about her disability after getting the job, the firm agreed she could wear a white cardigan to cover the link between her prosthesis and her upper arm. But shortly afterwards, she was told she could not work on the shop floor unless she took off the cardigan as she was breaking the firm’s “look policy”. She told the tribunal that someone in the A&F head office suggested she stay in the stockroom “until the winter uniform arrives”.
Needless to say if her allegations are proved factually then putting a disabled person out of sight simply due to their disability constitutes clear disability discrimination – both direct discrimination, as she is excluded from some (and probably the best) aspects of her role because of her disability, and under the harassment provisions if a humiliating environment is created.
It’s important to note that A&F deny the allegations, and claim that Dean rejected their efforts to resolve the situation before she resigned. Nonetheless, enjoy as blogger Charon QC pokes some fun at the A&F vision of good looks as taken from their website. As is so often the case with fashion photos, no-one seems to be wearing any clothes. MSNBC reports from America that the brand is “losing its cool” in these straitened times.
This incident shows how uncomfortable some people can become when confronted with disability. You’ll remember the complaints the BBC received from a minority of TV viewers over CBBC presenter Cerrie Burnell, with some concerned that their children were distressed when they saw that she missed an arm, or that they felt unable to explain it to them. Disability only repulses or distresses the ignorant, and of course ignorance is within everyone’s power to overcome, and within everyone else’s duty to dispel in others.
Please take five minutes to watch the excellent piece below that Cerrie Burnell did for the One Show – watching her talk to children sensibly about her disability who are, of course, showing intense curiosity about it, acts as an example to us all.
[...] But back to Riam’s case, for more commentary on it have a look at the Daily Telegraph’s coverage – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/fashionnews/5637449/Abercrombie-and-Fitch-worker-with-prosthetic-limb-left-shattered–says-her-mother.html and also take a look at Usefully Employed’s post on the same case http://blog.usefullyemployed.co.uk/2009/06/25/abercrombie-fitch-disability-row/ [...]
[...] deal to say about this case at the moment. Instead, I refer you to my blogging colleagues, PJH Law, Usefully Employed and Jobsworth for their analyses. Like the Tribunal, I shall reserve judgment. My feeling is that [...]
Looking back at this article, I wish I hadn’t said that she was attractive. It’s a particularly trait of right-wing tabloid journalism to somehow say that if someone’s attractive they’re less deserving of ill-treatment. It’s completely irrelevant.
[...] Riam Dean’s disability discrimination claim against Abercrombie & Fitch alleged that she had been pulled from the shop floor back to the stockroom: her prosthetic arm didn’t accord with the company’s “look” policy. [...]
[...] she had not established disability discrimination. Coverage here, here, here, here, here, and here. In a press release Abercrombie noted that the tribunal did not find direct discrimination because [...]